Hillary Clinton to headline Virginia event

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will reach beyond the early-voting states and into a crucial swing state when she headlines the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Jefferson Jackson dinner on June 26.

The appearance, likely Clinton’s first campaign speech outside the four early states, is being billed by the state party as an effort to help Democrats in this year’s state Senate races. But it is also a chance for the party’s current front-runner to build support in a state that will be hotly contested by Republicans in November 2016, and to appear alongside a longtime ally in Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

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“She knows the pivotal role Virginia plays in any presidential election,” said state party Chairwoman Susan Swecker in a statement. “She also knows that electing more Democrats this November will make the strong case for Democratic leadership in years to come.”

Clinton visited Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada — three early-voting states that are also likely to be swing states in the general election — in the first month of her campaign, and she is scheduled to swing through South Carolina on May 27. But otherwise, her schedule has been relatively quiet except for a series of fundraising events in New York, Washington, California and Chicago.

Her address in a state with 2015 elections will likely focus on the theme of building up local party infrastructures, which her campaign has worked to do in states like Iowa where Republicans swept local Democrats in 2014’s wave. Her campaign already has a staff member working to organize supporters in Virginia, which, like New Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. It is highly unlikely to play an influential role in the Democratic primary, even though one of Clinton’s likely competitors — former Sen. Jim Webb — once represented the state in Washington.

Virginia is largely friendly territory for the former secretary of state: McAuliffe has been a close Clinton family friend for years, and Sen. Tim Kaine, who is frequently mentioned as a vice-presidential prospect for Clinton, should she win the nomination, also hails from the state.

The timing of the event is another signal that Clinton’s travel schedule is likely to intensify by June, by which point she may also have held the large campaign kickoff event her team initially suggested would come in May.